pbs_kids_sprout_tvfandomcom-20200213-history
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor. It is a nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational television programming to public television stations in the United States. PBS is funded by member station dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, corporate contributions, National Datacast, pledge drives, private foundations, and individual citizens. All proposed funding for programming is subject to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source. PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by PBS. PBS Kids is also the name of a separate network which has had two iterations in the age of digital television; one which existed between 1999 and 2005, and the current version which was launched in January 2017. Along with HiT Entertainment, Sesame Workshop, and Comcast, PBS was one of the four founders of Sprout. History with Sprout 2005-2017 Following the failure of the 24/7 PBS Kids channel launched in 1999, PBS entered a joint partnership with HiT, Sesame Workshop, and Comcast to create an all new kids' channel entitled PBS Kids Sprout. It started out as an on-demand service, but eventually evolved into a cable TV channel. It replaced the PBS Kids channel. PBS Kids' own show Boohbah was the very first show to air on Sprout. Sprout aired reruns of many old and new PBS Kids programs. Some of these shows, such as Angelina Ballerina, hadn't been seen on PBS for years, while others, such as Sesame Street, ''were still making new episodes and were airing on both networks. In 2012, Sesame Workshop sold its interest in Sprout to NBCUniversal, which in turn later acquired Apax and PBS's shares in the network on March 19, 2013 and November 13, 2013 respectively, thus giving Comcast full ownership. Its operations were then merged into its NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Groupsubsidiary, the "PBS Kids" branding was dropped from the network's name (leaving it as simply '''Sprout'), and operations were moved from Philadelphia to New York City. On Sprout's 10th anniversary on September 26, 2015, the network received a brand refresh and shifted focus towards original shows, such as Nina's World, and phased out older acquired shows from PBS such as Barney & Friends (which later returned to the network in 2018), Thomas & Friends, and Super Why!, due to the network's licenses for these shows expiring and were replaced with newer acquired shows such as Maya the Bee and Sydney Sailboat. Only two shows that have been on the channel since its launch, Caillou and The Berenstain Bears, remained on the network. Caillou continued to air on the network until March 31, 2019, while The Berenstain Bears continued to air on the network until the channel rebranded into Universal Kids. For unknown reasons, Sesame Street (which is also a PBS show) wasn't removed from the network until November 17, 2015, unlike the other shows, which were deleted on September 26. 2017-present Despite Sprout / Universal Kids losing the rights to many beloved PBS programs, they managed to get back the rights to Barney & Friends and Bob the Builder. This may be because PBS already lost the rights to those two shows, so that could have made Universal Kids free to air it. Caillou survived the 10th anniversary, as well as the Universal Kids rebranding, but was eventually removed at the end of March 2019. ''The Berenstain Bears ''was another survivor of the 10th anniversary fallout, but didn't make it to the Universal Kids transition. To this day, it is unknown why those two shows stayed on the air as long as they did. PBS Kids Programs Broadcast By Sprout With HiT Entertainment *Angelina Ballerina **Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps *Barney & Friends *Bob the Builder *Thomas & Friends With Sesame Workshop *Dragon Tales *Panwapa *Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat *Sesame Street Others *The Berenstain Bears *Boohbah *Caillou *Franny's Feet *George Shrinks *Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks *Jay Jay the Jet Plane *Make Way for Noddy *Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies *Sid the Science Kid *Super Why *Teletubbies *Toopy and Binoo *Zoboomafoo Category:Companies